Chishiki
by o0SummerSkies0o
Summary: All knowledge was worth having, that was something that had been drilled into Ino since her induction to ANBU's Interrogation and Torture Unit. Knowing that her teammates would always be there for her in perpetuity? Priceless. Ino-Shika-Cho ONESHOT


**Chishiki**

By: SummerSkies

Screw it.

The door shattered before his fist in one blow.

He didn't pause to assess the damage he had caused as he crossed the threshold into Ino's home.

Her apartment was dark, and from what he could tell, a mess. Furniture lay all over in broken pieces, surrounded by shattered vases and lamps. Chouji reached out to flip the light switch on, but the room stayed stubbornly dark.

This was a bad sign. Ino had never broken the lights before. Not even when they had witnessed the darkest point of her life.

"Shit," he breathed softly. Shikamaru had warned him that he had a foreboding feeling about Ino, but Chouji had attributed it to the chronic nightmares that plagued the shadow users of the Nara clan. He ghosted through the living room, past the kitchen, and down the hallway to stand before her room door, doing his best to ignore the smell of old blood, and the pervading miasma of violence.

"Ino?" he called out softly before the closed door. There was no reply. Gently, he turned the knob of the door. It swung open noiselessly. If he had thought that Ino's apartment was dark before, her inner sanctum was the epitome of a black abyss of despair. The pervasive feeling of violence that he had experienced going down her hallway was now mixed with pain and sorrow.

Chouji frowned as he focused chakra into his eyes and ears before he stepped into the room. It wouldn't do for him to startle Ino. Since her induction into the ANBU's subdivision of Torture & Interrogation that was headed by Morini Ibiki, Ino had learned a multitude of techniques that when combined with her clan specialty made her into the most lethal member of the Yamanakas to exist in living and in memory. It also made her the most unstable since she tended to be more high-strung than the rest of her clan. Despite the fact that the Yamanakas tended to produce high strung shinobi, Ibiki and his predecessor had wanted a Yamanaka permanently placed in their unit for nearly 15 years now, and they weren't going to let go of Konoha's foremost mind-walker without a fight.

Even though she had taken down one of the most experienced 3 man ANBU teams without so much as a blink.

Chouji heard the faintest sounds of movement in the room, something that he would have missed if he hadn't taken the precaution of enhancing his ears and vision. With his heightened hearing, the rustling he heard was like the crackling of dried twigs in the winter.

He listened for the source of the sound, and turned to the direction of Ino's closet. Cautiously, he opened the door, not knowing what to expect.

Ino sat, in the furthest corner of the closet, arms wrapped protectively around her legs, rocking back and forth as she stared off at some image that only she could see.

Chouji knelt down, reaching out in a slow and careful motion that wouldn't startle her. He touched Ino's chin gently, the only spot on her face that was't decorated with bruises or lacerations.

She stilled at his touch. "Ino-chan," Chouji said softly. It seemed like an eternity to him before she registered that he had spoken. She lifted up a quietly composed face, her blue eyes empty of expression. Chouji moved his hand from her chin to brush back some limp blonde hair. "Ino-chan," he began again, trying to ignore the tightening of his throat at the state he found her in. "What happened?"

"Chou-kun," she whispered back. "What… what are you doing here?" She sounded confused. "They told me you were gone… on a mission…"

He had been, until Hiroki had appeared. The ANBU had appeared during the middle of a reconnaissance mission with orders for him to come back to Konoha posthaste. Ino had snapped after a session with a captured S-nin, and Team Starfish -who had tried to contain her, lay in a coma at the hospital in little more than a vegetative state. After it had been made apparent that no one else wanted to deal with the mind-walker, Ino had turned and high-tailed it back to her apartment. Ibiki had tried to gain entrance by personally appearing, but after a short ugly fight were he could not match the speed and ferocity of Ino's attacks, it had been determined that it was better to leave her alone, until he or Shikamaru could be brought back.

"It's ok Ino-chan," he soothed. "I'm back." He scooted backwards a little, holding out his hand as he said, "Come out of the closet for me Ino-chan?"

Ino stared at his hand before she began to rock again. "Can't," she whispered. "You'll die. Mama died… Daddy…" At the thought of her father who also lay in a coma, but for different reasons, Ino's face crumpled as she began to cry.

"It's ok Ino, its ok," Chouji soothed her once more. "I promise that nothing will happen to me if you take my hand." Chouji stared wildly around the room as he searched for something to that would reassure her. He saw the shattered pieces of her once pristine ANBU mask that was decorated with a single spiral. Inspiration hit him. "Naruto promised me that!"

Ino continued to rock, whispering the word 'can't' over and over again like a broken record. Chouji scooted forward cautiously, afraid that it would set her off, but she didn't notice. Encouraged, he slipped his arms around her now frighteningly slender form to cradle her like a child. Once secured, he began to back out of the closet in slow measured movements.

"Shh Ino," Chouji whispered in her ear as he recognized a second presence that had just entered the room. It was Shikamaru.

No words exchanged as he and the shadow-user traded glances. There was a faint glimmer in the darkness from what Chouji could see with his enhanced vision before it disappeared. In less than a minute, Ino stopped her whispering, pliant in his arms now due to the drugs coursing through her weakened body.

*** *** ***

Warmth.

That was the first thing that her mind registered as she began to wake up in various degrees.

The fragrance of grass and flowers was the next thing that came to her senses. It was those familiar scents that snapped her into full wakefulness.

Ino shot up in bed, startling her sleeping companion into consciousness as she struggled to get out.

She found her frozen in the act of shoving off her sheets. From the edge of her vision, she could make out the form of Shikamaru.

"Ino." There was an undercurrent of relief in his voice as he said her name.

She refused to answer him, choosing instead to focus on breaking his use of Kagemane no jutsu.

"You won't be able to do it Ino," he said quietly. He reached into his pocket for his packet of cigarettes. She followed his motions helplessly. "Your chakra points have been blocked since Chouji and I arrived." Shikamaru lit a cigarette and took a long drag before he spoke again. "What happened? Why did you… what caused you…"

Ino remained stubbornly silent. Annoyed, Shikamaru flicked his cigarette, dispelling the ash. His eyebrow twitched as he saw Ino do the same. From the set of her jaw, he could tell that she was getting angry at her failure to break Kagemane no jutsu.

"Look Ino," he sighed. "I may not have the chakra to hold you indefinitely like this, but since you can't break out of the jutsu with your chakra, it is easier for me to hold you in place for longer than the standard time." His voice gentled as he continued on, "I'm not trying to embarrass you by using Kagemane Ino, but I want to know what happened. Why you-"

"That S-nin," Ino interrupted him, "He was there… when okaa-chan died. I…" Ino closed her eyes, trying to block the S-nin's memories of raping Yamanaka Aya. It was playing in her mind like a horror movie that could not be stopped. Ino rarely ever regretted being a Yamanaka when it came to her abilities, but she did so now in light of her last interrogation session. She didn't finish and found herself abruptly released from Kagemane with Shikamaru by her side. Tears shimmered in her eyes as she struggled not to cry. "Don't look at me," she whispered her throat a hard knot. "I couldn't… I couldn't stop…"

She found her hand gripped by Shikamaru as his mind quickly worked out what had happened to Ino with the pieces of information that she had given him.

Damn.

Shit.

Fuck.

He hated it when he was right. Ino tried to pull her hand from his grasp, but he tightened his grip. "Don't." It wasn't often that Shikamaru found himself wanting to touch anyone, but then again the rules had never applied when it came to the second generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

"I don't condone what you did to Team Starfish, but I can understand why you did what you did." Dark brown eyes met pale blue. "What I don't get is, why did you continue when you saw the memories?"

Her pale blue eyes became hard as she answered, "Because all knowledge is worth having Shikamaru. His cohorts won't be able to function by the time I find and finish with them. Ibiki," she spat, angry beyond measure as she recalled how the head interrogator had tried to stop her, "shouldn't have stopped me. I warned him." Her hand clenched spasmodically with remembered rage. "I-"

"You should have waited." Shikamaru and Ino turned to look at the source of interruption. It was Chouji. He stood at the doorway, hands held limply at his sides as he repeated himself. "You should have waited. We would have backed you up."

"Cho-"

"No," the Akimichi said, interrupting her. His voice was low, vicious with restrained fury. "You don't get to interrupt me Ino. You should have waited. All knowledge is worth having, especially when you want justice, but it isn't worth it at the cost of your life." His hand moved to grip the doorway, "If I hadn't gotten to you in time, what do you think would have happened?" The doorframe bent from the pressure of his hand.

Ino was silent.

"You need to think about what you do and how it affects others," Chouji ground out from clenched teeth. "We are the Ino-Shika-Cho trio for a reason." The doorframe began to crack. With effort, Chouji released it. "Don't ever do anything like that again," he said curtly, staring at Ino.

Ino nodded, speechless.

Shikamaru stared. He had planned on saying something of a similar vein like this to Ino, but it seemed that Choji had beaten him to the punch.

They were the second generation of the famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio, known throughout the village and bingo books as a team that was unrivaled in teamwork, loyalty, and friendship. It was a formation that they had all had their doubts in since their personalities were so different from the original, but it had endured. Ino would have her justice. Shikamaru and Chouji would see to that. There was no question of that knowledge in her mind now.

All knowledge was worth having, that was something that had been drilled into Ino since her induction to ANBU's Interrogation and Torture Unit. Knowing that her teammates would always be there for her in perpetuity? That was priceless.

Author's Notes:

For those who are curious, Chishiki means 'knowledge' in Japanese.

Please review. I like knowing what others think of my writing.

Oh, and for a laugh, here's an Omake:

Price of 10 sharp Kunai? 2 Ryou

Price of a packet of exploding tags? 5 Ryou

Having it drilled into your head that all knowledge is worth having by the Interrogation and Torture unit of ANBU? Thousands of Ryou for that sort of conditioning.

Knowing that her teammates would always be there for her in perpetuity? Priceless.

For everything else, just rely on VISA


End file.
